Come and Rescue Me
by bloodredrosepetals
Summary: Ron has suffered from a powerful curse cast by Lucius Malfoy, he now lies dead in mind but not in body. Hermione knows she should let him die but she just can't seem to let him go.


_Ron_.

"RON!" Hermione screamed just as Lucius Malfoy thrust his wand at her throat.

"Screaming for our beloved ginger boyfriend now, are we?" He snapped her head back, his silvery orbs piercing through her brown ones. "Thought you'd never stoop so low. They do call the smartest witch of your age… Guess I was wrong, after all you're nothing but a pathetic little mudblood."

He let go of her and sneered.

"Crucio," came his lazy drawl.

Suddenly, pain coursed through Hermione's entire body. Every vein, every artery, all of her cells felt as if they were on fire. It was an excruciating, insanely horrifying pain. Hermione held in her screams, biting her bottom lip until she could feel a warm liquid making its way down her chin and dripping onto the floor underneath her.

_Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip._

Where was Ron? What had Lucius meant earlier about having him punished for Harry Potter's actions? Hermione was in so much hurt she could hardly think straight. She tried to count the rhythmatic drips still pouring out of an open wound on her lip. _One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve,…_ There was a painful pounding inside her head, but it was nothing compared to what the curse was doing to her. _Please, please let it be over._ Yet the dripping never ceased. _Twenty five, twenty six, twenty seven,…_ At this point, the pain became unbearable. Hermione had been in situations like these before, but it had never lasted this long. As red spots began to cloud her vision, she came across a fork in the road. Let Malfoy have the pleasure of hearing her scream and a chance to save Ron, or maintain her dignity but possibly go insane and lose everything?

At that moment, a bloodcurdling scream rang in the air, so loud it could be heard in every nook and cranny of the enormous Manor. It was a scream of lost love, or desperateness, of pain emotionally and physically.

Suddenly, the pain stopped. Malfoy cackled in a way eerily similar to Bellatrix Lestrange. _Well at least she's dead_, thought Hermione warily as she slumped down to the cold stone floor, exhausted.

"Finally. Took you quite a while to break, actually…" said Lucius as he picked her up and unceremoniously threw her into the walls of the dungeon. Hermione was still trembling violently. Now and then spasms racked her body until her vision blurred and she was forced to close her eyes to keep from getting dizzy. "Now, wouldn't you like to reunite with your lover?" He had a malicious look in his eyes.

"Where's R-R-Ron?" Hermione tried to speak in the steadiest voice she could muster, but as she was still trembling vehemently, that was difficult task to say the least.

Lucius Malfoy straightened up, snapped his fingers, and cleared his throat. A house elf instantly appeared by his side. Hermione heard the crack of apparition, hoping it was Ron. Instead she saw a house elf with very pointy ears, emerald green eyes (_just like Harry's_, she thought, oh how she wished he were here right now), and a nose comparable to Mickey Mouses'. The house elf bowed low.

"Grask, send the pathetic ginger down here immediately," Malfoy ordered in the ice-cold tone reserved for those he considered lowly and unworthy of his presence.

"Yes, master. Grask will do as Master Malfoy wishes." The house elf disappeared and reappeared a second later lugging a bloody and unconscious body to set at Lucius' feet. He bowed once again and promptly disapparated with a snap of his fingers.

Hermione blinked twice to clear her vision. The spasms had stopped but she was still trembling a bit. As she took in the sight before her, Hermione let out a frightened gasp.

"Ron?" she whispered, reaching forward to get a closer look at the mess that was the love of her life. There were large bumps in his head, dark-red blood pouring out of various wounds in his body. There were cuts along his forehead, jaw line, down his neck and into his muscular Quidditch-toned chest. The coppery smell of fresh blood made Hermione feel dizzy, but she forced herself to remain conscious. For Ron. She would avenge him if it was the last thing he did.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM?" she screeched, glaring at Lucius Malfoy with a murderous glint in her usually warm hazel eyes.

He snickered.

"Blood traitors deserve to die," he stated simply, "But this specific blood traitor crossed the line. How dare he date a mudblood? Such _filth_ will not do! Avada kedavra, as you know, is a very painless curse. Weasel here deserves to suffer! So I settled for something much worse instead."

"W-what did you do to him?! You bastard!" Hermione spat, silent tears rolling down her cheeks as she gazed down into the face of her lover.

Ron. He meant so much to her. How could she live without him? By what Lucius had said, he was bound to die sooner or later, and it would not be without suffering first.

"A curse."

Again, Lucius had Hermione confused.

_A curse? Then it must be dark magic… what could be worse than the killing curse though?_ Hermione thought. Then it dawned on her.

Ron is as good as dead. His body was still conscious, but his soul had already passed. He could not return as a ghost because in technical terms, he was still alive. But he wasn't. He would never move again, never wake up to see the sunlight, never hold her hand and tell her everything would be alright. He would never take her on an evening stroll in the muggle park a block away from her house. They could never get married. Never have children, never grow old together. Because Ron had faded away. He had forgotten about her, and even if she could get him to St. Mungo's on time, he would inexplicably hate her. Common effects of the morlivious curse, which she had studied in her 3rd year at Hogwarts.

The so-called Gryffindor princess slumped down to the ground dejectedly, her whole body wracking with loud sobs. _Ron_, she thought, as her entire world went black.


End file.
